The 10th running of the New South Wales Road Racing Club’s (NSWRRC) annual regularity relay event has been labelled by event organisers as a major success, with more than 150 drivers participating last month at Sydney Motorsport Park.
Held in late-June, the 10th anniversary of the event meant the relay was held as a 10-hour regularity relay rather than the usual six-hour format, creating a lively atmosphere among entries and spectators.
The club confirmed a total of 33 teams comprised of 155 drivers took part in this grassroots motorsport event.
Each driver had to nominate a time that they considered they could drive consistently to over the period of the two days.
The event does not allow drivers to have two different nominated times, one for dry track and one for wet track.
Weather played an important part in what times drivers nominated because the forecast of showers through the event meant there would be periods of dry track and periods of wet track.
The event soon became a four-way battle between regular front runners; Phoenix Racing, Barge Racing, Southern Motorsport, and the defending champions Panorama Mountain Men.
Phoenix Racing got out to a commanding lead in the early stages and looked like they would never be headed.
Panorama Mountain Men started slowly and were placed 13th after two hours.
By the end of the fourth hour they had climbed up to fourth place, joining the ongoing battle between Barge Racing and Southern Motorsport for the minor placings.
A penalty imposed on Phoenix Racing in the later stages of the event brought them back towards the other three teams, giving those teams a glimmer of hope.
A torrential downpour impacted on the event about two hours from the end, which had a significant impact on the overall results.
Those teams where all drivers had nominated dry times could no longer achieve any bonuses and those teams that had some or all of their drivers nominating wet times when now able to continue to score bonuses.
By the end of the event Panorama Mountain Men had taken the lead with a little over six-second gap to Phoenix Racing who in turn were less than half a second ahead of Barge Racing in third.
The win and Kerry Butchers Ross Elliott Trophy presented to the Panorama Mountain Men meant they had now won four of the last five NSW Road Racing Club regularity relays and have equalled Phoenix Racing’s record of four wins.
”This is one of the sweetest of our victories in regularity relays because of the challenges we had to overcome during the event,” MX-5 Club of New South Wales member and Panorama Mountain Men driver Stewart Temesvary said.
“For much of the event our team thought we had made a mistake in nominating wet track times and it looked like we would not get onto the podium.
“The rain forecasted for most of the event did not arrive until the last couple of hours, which meant for most of the event we had to try and circulate consistently on a dry track to achieve wet track times.
“Finally the rain did come and we were able to make great strides forward, catching the leaders in the last few laps of the 10-hour event.”
Top Five Results:
- Panorama Mountain Men – 479 points/2.561 points per lap
- Phoenix Racing – 496 points/2.480 points per lap
- Barge Racing – 448 points/2.475 points per lap
- Southern Motorsport – 440 points/2.304 points per lap
- Just Regular Guys – 402 points/1.942 points per lap
